History Literature / TheLadyInTheLake

* DirtyCop: The cops in Bay City are notorious for being on the payroll of the local gangsters. Mrs Almore's death is widely believed by those who know about it to have been a murder that was covered up by a gangster who Dr, Almore was doing off-the-books work for. [[spoiler:It was a murder, and Detective-Lieutenant Degarmo did cover it up, albeit for more personal reasons.]]

* DirtyCop: The cops in Bay City are notorious for being on the payroll of the local gangsters. Mrs Almore's death is widely believed by those who know about it to have been a murder that was covered up by a gangster who Dr Almore was doing off-the-books work for. [[spoiler:It was a murder, and Detective-Lieutenant Degarmo did cover it up, albeit for more personal reasons.]]

* RevealingCoverUp: After Marlowe goes to talk to Lavery, a DirtyCop shows up to warn him off taking an interest in the affairs of Lavery's neighbor Dr Almore. As Marlowe takes great pleasure in telling the cop later, he'd had no idea who Dr Almore was and no interest in him until the warning-off told him there was something to be interested in; if it hadn't been for that, he'd have left the Almore angle alone and nobody involved in it would have had anything to worry about.

* PinkElephants: Miss Fromsett tells Marlowe that Dr Almore has a reputation as the kind of doctor "who ran around all night with a case of loaded hypodermic needles, keeping the fast set from having pink elephants for breakfast."

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: It starts out with a search for a missing / runaway wife and ends up with [[spoilers:3 murders and mafia involvement in defense industries, skimming money from the war effort]].

* DuringTheWar: Set during [=WW2=], after the US joined it. While at first glance it's a completely insignificant detail that serves no purpose, [[spoiler: the finale has Degarmo trying to escape through the dam of Little Fawn Lake, which, as a strategic asset, is guarded by the military. Since he drives past the checkpoint, they open fire, killing him]].

* FinallyFoundTheBody: A month after Muriel Chess went missing, her husband happens to spot a bloated blonde corpse under a pier. It never occurred to him that her final note to him could be read as a suicide note just as easily as a Dear John letter. [[spoiler:Except instead of the body of Muriel Chess, murdered by Crystal Kingsley, it's exactly the opposite, used by Muriel, actually Mildred Haviland, to keep anyone from looking for her.]]

%%* PrivateDetective: Marlowe.

Marlowe is hired by Derace Kingsley, a wealthy businessman, to find Kingsley's wife. Crystal Kingsley had apparently run off with one of her lovers, Chris Lavery, but Lavery has reappeared on the scene and denies knowing anything about her whereabouts. Marlowe's investigation also uncovers the truth about two other lost wives: Florence Almore, a doctor's wife whose suspicious death was ruled a suicide, and Muriel Chess, the wife of the caretaker of the lakeside holiday home where Mrs Kingsley was last seen.

* FemmeFatale: [[spoiler:Mildred Haviland is a skilled actor with a way of getting men to jump through hoops for her. She murders two women and threatens to shoot Marlowe before being killed herself.]]

* MasterOfDisguise: [[spoiler:Mrs Fallbrook, the Crystal Kingsley Marlowe meets at Granada apartments, and Muriel Chess]] are all actually the same person: [[spoiler:Mildred Haviland]]. Marlowe is suspicious of [[spoiler:Mrs Fallbrook until she puts the gun in his hand, and later he admits that he is impressed by the same woman's hard-boiled performance in the Granada, but it isn't until the SummationGathering that he affirms that the real Crystal is dead, and Mildred, alias Muriel, killed her and impersonated her in San Bernardino as well, a month before Granada.]]

* TheSheriff: Jim Patton is the town constable and deputy sheriff, presumably answerable to a county sheriff, but Little Fawn Lake is far enough up in the mountains that he's effectively on his own. [[spoiler:Despite his advancing age, he's impressively quick on the draw and a good enough shot to [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands shoot a gun out of a man's hands]].]]

* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:Degarmo seems to be all but daring Patton to kill him as he leaves, but the constable refuses to shoot an unarmed man. Degarmo rushes the wartime checkpoint across the dam and is shot halfway across, [[DangerousClifftopRoad swerving over the side]] and landing in a crumpled wreck below.]]

* VomitingCop: When the local constable and his deputy come to take charge of the corpse that's been sunken in the lake for a month, the constable, coroner, and Marlowe take it in stride, but after wrapping up the body, the deputy goes off and throws up behind a tree. Downplayed; he does so in a fairly businesslike manner and Marlowe's narration doesn't dwell on his reaction.

* TapOnTheHead: While confronting [[spoiler:Kingsley's wife, who has now produced a gun]], somebody steps out from behind a curtain and coshes Marlowe on the back of the head. [[spoiler:He wakes up to find the woman dead, and himself covered in gin and made out to look as if he killed her. During TheSummation he reveals that he has deduced that the man who coached him and killed the woman was CorruptCop Degarmo.]]

* TapOnTheHead: While confronting [spoiler:Kingsley's wife, who has now produced a gun]], somebody steps out from behind a curtain and coshes Marlowe on the back of the head. [[spoiler:He wakes up to find the woman dead, and himself covered in gin and made out to look as if he killed her. During TheSummation he reveals that he has deduced that the man who coached him and killed the woman was CorruptCop Degarmo.]]

* MasterOfDisguise: [[spoiler:Mrs Fallbrook, the Crystal Kingsley Marlowe meets at Granada apartments, and Muriel Chess]] are all actually the same person: [[spoiler:Mildred Haviland]]. Marlowe is suspicious of [[spoiler:Mrs Fallbrook until she puts the gun in his hand, and he admits that he is impressed by her hard-boiled performance in the Granada, but it isn't until the SummationGathering that he affirms that the real Crystal is dead, and Mildred, alias Muriel, killed her and impersonated her in San Bernardino, a month before Granada.]]

* TapOnTheHead: At one point Marlowe is knocked unconscious by somebody who comes up behind him and coshes him on the back of the head.

* FemmeFatale: [[spoiler:Mildred Haviland is a skilled actor with a way of getting men to jump through hoops for her. She murders to women and threatens to shoot Marlowe before being killed herself.]]

* MasterOfDisguise: [[spoiler:Mrs Fallbrook, the Crystal Kingsley Marlowe meets at Granada apartments, and Muriel Chess]] are all actually the same person: [[spoiler:Mildred Haviland]]. Marlowe is suspicious of [[spoiler:Mrs Fallbrook until she puts the gun in his hand, and he admits that he is impressed by her hard-boiled performance in the Granada, but it isn't until the SummationGathering that he affirms that the real Crystal is dead, and Mildred, alias Muriel, killed her and impersonated her in San Bernardino.]]

* BalconyEscape: Marlowe is knocked out in a hotel room and recovers consciousness to find himself sharing the room with a dead body and police knocking on the door. He buys time by climbing out the window and in through the window of the next hotel room.

* MasterOfDisguise: [[spoiler:Mrs Fallbrook, the Crystal Kingsley Marlowe meets at the Prescott hotel, and Muriel Chess]] are all actually the same person: [[spoiler:Mildred Haviland]]. Marlowe is suspicious of [[spoiler:Mrs Fallbrook until she puts the gun in his hand, and he admits that he is impressed by her hard-boiled performance in the hotel, but it isn't until the SummationGathering that he affirms that the real Crystal is dead, and Mildred, alias Muriel, killed her and impersonated her in San Bernardino.]]

* TheCasanova: Chris Lavery, a small-time lothario who lives off the women he dates. Miss Fromsett describes Lavery as 'quite easy to hate [...] And poisonously easy to love.' [[spoiler:Mildred kills him, not because he knew anything, but because he saw her alive after she [[FakingTheDead faked her death]].]]

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Mrs Fallbrook, Chris Lavery's landlady, is a rather scatterbrained woman who Marlowe has to bluster his way past -- just before he finds Lavery dead in his bathroom. [[spoiler:She's actually Mildred Haviland in disguise, ReturningToTheScene.]]

* TheSheriff: Jim Patton is the town constable and deputy sheriff, presumably answerable to a county sheriff, but Little Fawn Lake is far enough up in the mountains that he's effectively on his own.[[spoiler:Despite his advancing age, he's impressively quick on the draw and a good enough shot to [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands shoot a gun out of a man's hands]].]]

* RevealingCoverUp: After Marlowe goes to talk to lothario Lavery, a DirtyCop shows up to warn him off taking an interest in the affairs of Lavery's neighbor Dr Almore. As Marlowe takes great pleasure in telling the cop later, he'd had no idea who Dr Almore was and no interest in him until the warning-off told him there was something to be interested in; if it hadn't been for that, he'd have left the Almore angle alone and nobody involved in it would have had anything to worry about.

-->I looked sideways and saw that the bathroom window of the next apartment was not more than three feet away. A well-nourished mountain goat could make it without any trouble at all. The question was whether a battered private detective could make it, and if so, what the harvest would be.

* PrivateDetective: Marlowe.
* RevealingCoverUp: After Marlowe goes to talk to Lavery, a DirtyCop shows up to warn him off taking an interest in the affairs of Lavery's neighbor Dr Almore. As Marlowe takes great pleasure in telling the cop later, he'd had no idea who Dr Almore was and no interest in him until the warning-off told him there was something to be interested in; if it hadn't been for that, he'd have left the Almore angle alone and nobody involved in it would have had anything to worry about.

* VomitingCop: When the sheriff and his deputy come to take charge of the corpse that's been sunken in the lake for a month, the sheriff takes it in stride but the sight and smell prompt the deputy to go and throw up behind a tree.

* ThePrecariousLedge: Marlowe is knocked out in a hotel room and recovers consciousness to find himself sharing the room with a dead body and police knocking on the door. He buys time by climbing out the window and in through the window of the next hotel room.
-->I looked sideways and saw that the bathroom window of the next apartment was not more than three feet away. A well-nourished mountain goat could make it without any trouble at all. The question was whether a battered private detective could make it, and if so, what the harvest would be.

[[redirect:Literature/PhilipMarlowe]]